I am being sent to a conference in Oakland next week, staying at the Waterfront Hotel in Jack London Square. I will miss my family terribly, of course, but we’re having yet another blizzard in Massachusetts and the third weekend snow storm in 3 weeks, so those 70 degree temperatures I saw on Weather Underground look pretty fantastic.
What’s it like for a visitor? Can I feel safe walking around during reasonable hours (e.g., not by my slight-of-build female self at 3a.m.)? If I wanted to go for a run outside are the streets set up for that? 4 feet of snow = No sidewalks here!
There will also be a good 6 hours on one of the days where I am unscheduled. What should I see? I’m not renting a car, but BART looks close by and reliable.
Finally, when I’m in a hotel for more than 2 days, I do like to bring in some provisions of my own (bottles of seltzer, fruit, maybe some yogurt if the room has a fridge, possibly a bottle of wine) and avoid having to have all my meals be restaurant or convention food, but some convention centers have no stores in walking distance. (cue terrible memory of traveling to Chicago and getting my period 9 days early and having to pay TWELVE DOLLARS in the hotel shop for a brand of tampons I hate because there was no drugstore or grocery store in walking distance). Anyone know about this area?
If I sound high-maintenance, I’m really not. As long as it’s better than the La Quinta (Spanish for “the shithole”) that I stayed in near Dothan, Alabama, I’m cool.
Normal daytime hours are perfectly safe. I’m sure you have heard about Oakland, and while JLS is a pretty nice and safe part of Oakland, it’s not Tokyo. So that means you should exercise some modicum of safety after about 10pm, but I’ve never felt unsafe during the day.
Obviously, this depends on what your interests are. You can catch a ferry from JLS itself to San Francisco if you wanted to take in some touristy stuff, go to a museum, nice restaurant, or whatever. Berkeley is just a few miles north, with the university campus and its own fleet of restaurants.
There are a few places nearby where you can purchase sundries, but no “one-stop” supermarket or whatever. The nearest drugstore or market is in downtown Oakland (or Chinatown), which is a half-mile away. I assume this is walking distance for you.
While you’re there, I recommend Yoshi’s (if you like sushi, jazz, or both) and Scott’s Seafood. In fact, there’s a bunch of good restaurants around there, it’s hard to go wrong.
Daytime: full of yuppies. Be prepared.
Nighttime: not worse than many neighborhoods.
BART is not super close if walking, but YMMV as it is still walkable.
Bevmo is nearby, so your liver is happy. The square is a little bit away from major shopping areas, however. But seeing as how you think BART is close, you could head to Chinatown or elsewhere.
I cannot speak specifically about hotels except that they look pretty alright from the outside.
Thank you! I realized after posting that some of my questions contained incomplete info. I definitely am I’m interested in that ferry trip to San Francisco, so I will check out schedules. And yeah, walking distance is a big spread. I consider 2-3 miles if I have the time.
There’s a host-sponsored meal out on the second night, and I think Yoshi’s where they mentioned.
Yuppies sound terrifying; thanks for the warning.
I’ll look again at the maps I was looking at to better determine where transportation is.
There’s a free shuttle that runs on Broadway from morning until night on weekdays and at night on Saturdays. It would be a good way to get from BART to Jack London Square and back, especially if you’re carrying luggage.
On Sundays here’s a great farmers’ market at Jack London Square. I don’t know if you’ll be there on Sunday, though. On Fridays there’s another farmers’ market (not quite as good) in the Old Oakland district. There’s a BevMo in Jack London Square where you can get water and wine. I don’t know where the best place would be to get yogurt.
JLS is close to Chinatown. This isn’t nearly as touristy as the one in San Francisco - it’s not full of stores selling carved jade dragons. The restaurants are very good. I can recommend Shan Dong, Vien Huong (especially if you’re really hungry), Cam Huong for Vietnamese sandwiches, Gum Kuo for jook and things like char siu and roast duck, and Phnom Penh House for Cambodian food.
The First Fridays event can be a real blast. It’s reachable by the shuttle. Of course, this depends on your being in Oakland at the right time, which I guess you won’t. There’s a more sedate event on Saturdays called the Oakland Art Murmur Saturday Stroll.
The Jack London Square area is home to Yoshi’s, one of the best jazz clubs in the country. There are also clubs and theaters in the downtown area, including the Paramount TheaterFox Theater and The Sound Room.